


The Strength Of A Thread

by orangebarmy



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: Brothers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Injury, Ratings: PG
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 16:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3494366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangebarmy/pseuds/orangebarmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT sadly<br/>Summary: Their masks were more than just a piece of fabric<br/>Rating: PG - look look I wrote something brotherly only<br/>Warning: Light non-descriptive mentioning of an injury<br/>Note: Inspired by a picture by ashitarimai</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Strength Of A Thread

The room was lit by a single candle, the soft light washing over the only two inhabitants. Leo looked up from where he was sat cross-legged a small box before him. The night had been an especially hard one for the family but in the end they were still a family of five.

Looking around Leo couldn’t stop the small smile which graced his features as his eyes rested on the form of his strongest hot headed brother. The night had been especially hard on Raph and the fact that Raph had come into Leo’s room to sleep was enough to say how emotionally wrought the emerald green turtle was.

Sighing Leo lifted the lid off the box before him revealing it to be filled with numerous masks. The pieces of fabric were all in various states of disrepair, some even covered with blood. Reaching beside him Leo picked up his latest blue mask and felt his heart ache inside of his chest.

His eyes lifted once more to Raph and he could understand why Raph was so upset about it all. The emerald green turtle was hugging the mattress Leo used as a bed and the leader knew it was because Raph needed to hold onto something like he had earlier been holding onto Mikey.

When they had been surrounded during their patrol by foot ninja, none of them had really thought anything of it. They worked together as a team, as they had done since they were small turtles. They had removed one foot ninja after the other from the situation until they had been able to retreat safely.

Raph had as usual argued about staying and fighting but he was outnumbered by his siblings and they had started to retreat. They had been jumping to the next building when Mikey had suddenly shouted in agony and started to drop into the space between buildings.

Raph had grabbed Mikey’s hand, while Leo and Donnie who were safely across grabbed Raph’s legs. Both Raph and Mikey had smacked harshly into the building but it wasn’t until they had been pulled to safety that the brothers had seen the tanto embedded in Mikey’s calf.

The blood poured down the sea green leg and Mikey clung to Raph painfully tight. Leo and Donnie reacted without words, the leader tearing his mask from his head and handing it to Donnie who knelt down beside Mikey.

Raph whispered reassuring words as Donnie tied Leo’s mask around Mikey’s leg pulling the fabric tight in order to slow the bleeding. Leo was shocked at how pale Mikey was already looking and just how much blood his brother had lost from the seemingly simple wound.

Between the three of them, they carried Mikey home none of them saying a word as Mikey began to drift in and out of consciousness. Safely back in the lab, Donnie had replaced Leo’s mask with a more suitable tourniquet and set about removing the tanto and sealing the wound.

By time he was done Mikey was a sickly colour and looked rather gaunt causing Donnie to insist the younger turtle remain under his watchful eye for the next twenty-four hours at least. He would call April in the morning to request some supplements to help Mikey rebuild his own blood supplies.

Donnie had eventually chucked Leo and Raph out of the lab to get some rest saying he would wake them to take over when he needed some sleep. Reluctantly the brothers had left and it was at this point that Raph had made his way up to Leo’s room.

It was an unspoken arrangement between the brothers, one that was never spoken about even in their most heated of arguments. Leo understood his brother’s need for comfort in situations such as this, the physical reassurance of another in the same room and Raph understood that he could ask this of his leader without fear of chastisement or reproach. 

Smiling sadly Leo gently folded his slightly bloodied mask and placed it in box with the others. Each mask he kept represented a moment in their lives when one of them had come too close to the edge.

Their masks were more than just pieces of fabric which they used to keep their identities safe; they were lifesaving threads too. In a moment of need none of them would hesitate to remove their masks and reveal themselves in the starkest form to save the life of another.

Leo sometimes marvelled at the strength these little threads possessed, the ability to save their lives at a moment’s notice. He smiled as he thought how similar the affection they had for each other was so like the masks he had hidden away in the box.

On its own a thread only had so much strength, but interwoven with others than it became so much more. He and his family were the same, on their own they were strong but when together they were so much more and tonight they had proved that once more.

Closing the box Leo put it away and turned back to where Raph continued to sleep. Smiling softly Leo crawled into the small space next to the wall and leant against the wall. Picking up his book he rested a hand on Raph’s shell, reassuring his brother that he was still there and used the gentle light of the candle to read.

He would read most of the night away watching over Raph while Donnie watched over Mikey. It was one of the fortunate things about being a thread in a pattern, when one thread was weak the others could be strong and tonight was Leo’s turn to be strong.

END


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